The New Life
by Angel Es Moi
Summary: When Rachel accepts a deal from the Ellimist to keep her alive, does she know what she is in for? ((my first animorph fic--so be nice ;) ))
1. Prologue

Prologue  
  
Disclaimer: I don't own any of the Animorph characters, blah, blah, blah, but I do own the characters that I create! So yay for me!  
  
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Oh no. No way that I'm going out like this. Me, dead? That isn't possible. I'm Rachel. I'm supposed to stick every fight out until the end. And this was our last fight. The final make it or break it fight. I wasn't going down now. So me being dead just wasn't an option.  
  
So I guess it's lets-make-a-deal time. I mean, the Ellimist is a fair guy, right? Maybe I can talk him into letting me stick out this one last fight. Then he could kill me off (of course, if he wanted to leave me alive after the fight, hey, that was fine too). Well, it turns out the Ellimist isn't as fair of a guy as I thought he would be. He did make me an offer that would keep me alive, sure, but it wasn't exactly what I was looking for. It wouldn't keep me in the fight.  
  
I took it, though. I mean, hey, between that and dying...well, between those two options, the offer wasn't that bad at all.  
  
I'm sure you're all just dying to know what the offer was, right?  
  
Well, I would still be alive. But I would no longer be Rachel, exactly. I would no longer be living in the same town, or the same state. I would look the same and be the same person in general, but I would no longer be allowed to have contact with everyone else. Or at least I wasn't allowed to attempt to come in contact with them. If it happened without me even doing the slightest thing to make it possible then so be it. But if I actively sought them out I was screwed over. Because the second I did this, bye life. I would go right back to being dead.  
  
The second I agreed to the Ellimist's little deal, I woke up in a bed at an unfamiliar room. Hmmm...okay. I assumed this was my new home. Getting out of bed, I walked to the mirror. Wanted to make sure I at least looked like I was the same person even though I definitely was in a different house. Yep, same Rachel.  
  
I decided it was time to check out the rest of my surroundings and opened the door. Okay, scratch house. Definitely in an apartment. But hey, that's cool, the Ellimist probably couldn't afford to give me a whole house. No parents or siblings in sight. That was probably for the best, I didn't need a whole new family.  
  
"Hey Rachel, ready to greet your new world?" a voice traveled to me from around the corner. I cautiously went around to see who it was.  
  
Standing before me was a girl about my age. Nothing particularly special, she was average height with brown hair and green eyes. She smirked at me and held out her hand for me to shake. "I'm Isabella. Isabella Marlone. Your new babysitter!"  
  
A/N: Okay, okay, I know short. But hey it's a prologue, ya know? I'll probably update a lot at one time and then hardly at all just to let you know, thanks to lovely school work/upcoming midterms! So deal with me! And please comment so I'll feel special! 


	2. Chapter 1

a/n: Took me horribly long to get another chapter up...so sorry...my computer crashed and I managed to lose all of my chapters...because that is how things work for me. Oh well...I'm gonna try to write some more :)  
  
CHapTEr 1  
  
"Babysitter?" I asked increndoulsy. Puh-leeze. I am sixteen, I don't need no stinkin' babysitter! I haven't needed a babysitter for at least eight years(granted my mom would disagree, but I felt that I was a rather capable and independent eight year old in my day). "The Ellemist gave me a babysitter? This is a joke, right?"  
  
"Okay..." Issabella said, tilting her head slightly. "Maybe babysitter wasn't the best way to put it...especially seeing as how I am your age. I guess the Elimist just thought it would be a good idea to put someone in this apartment with you so you would at least know someone, you know?" I looked at her, still confused. "Okay, okay, so I suck at explanations." she said with a shrug, "But our background story is this: You are my cousin, your parents are off traveling in...what do you think? France, Italy?"  
  
"Um, France is fine." I said, still not entirely sure where this was going.  
  
"Okay, France. They are traveling in France and you are staying with me, your cousin, and your good old Uncle Eli." She flashed me a grin. "Get it? Eli...Eli-mist?" Um, yea, not the best joke. But who said people from outer space had a brilliant sense of humor? "Anyway," Issabelle continued, walking towards our kitchen. "we'll be going to the local high school and acting like two fun loving regular kids. I'm just here to make sure you don't do anything stupid, like try to call up Jake or Cassie." Opening the refrigerator door, she pulled out a bottle of water. "Now you go get dressed. We gotta go to school today!"  
  
I stood there for a few more seconds, just looking at her. Finally I went back to my room. Okay, I can deal with this, I told myself. New school...new adventure. This is fine....but only one problem...what the heck was I going to wear? I went to the closet...well, there's a positive note. Not only was I transported into a whole new city and state, but so were my clothes. Things were starting to look okay.  
  
"Wear Red!!" Issabella called from the other room, "I've been here for a little while, since the beginning of the school year-and today is homecoming! So you gotta show school pride!"  
  
"Um, how would I know to show school pride if I've never been there before?" I asked indignantly. I did not enjoy people dictating what I could and could not wear. Nonetheless, I began to search for my favorite red skirt. It only took me a few minutes to find it, it was a pleated tennis skirt.  
  
"Ummmm...because you live with me and I would have told you?" Issabella said, coming into my room, "Duh!" She was wearing a pair of white pants and a black tank top. She had pulled her hair up as well, and it was adorned with a red bow, and had a red letterman jacket folded over her arm.  
  
"Well you are sure in the spirit mode!" I told her, finally finding a white t-shirt that would match my skirt.  
  
"Yea, well, I date a football player. In fact," she said, pausing to look at the clock on my new nightstand, "He's due here to pick us up in 15 minutes. So you better get dressed quick!" She turned and walked out of the room. I put on my skirt and shirt and then rummaged around in my closet again, finally finding my red hoodie. Still had five minutes, so I found a brush and ran it through my hair. I gotta say, the Elimist did good, he at least let me start out this adventure with pre-done makeup.  
  
"He's here!" She yelled.  
  
"He's early!" I yelled back, slipping on a pair of shoes, I walked down the hall and got to the living room just in time to see Issabella greeting a very cute guy. I gotta admit, she did good work too. He wasn't that much taller than her, with curly blonde hair and blue eyes. He also looked very built.  
  
"Ya left your jacket here last night." she said, throwing it at him. He grabbed it and pulled her close for a kiss. She pushed away quickly, "Um, James, cousin in the room."  
  
I didn't even realize she knew I was there, but it was obvious that they both saw me now. "Um, hi. I'm Rachel." I said.  
  
"James." he replied, "Now c'mon. I have a football meeting before classes."  
  
"We'll be right down." Issabella said, giving him a peck on the cheek. She walked over to the couch and picked up a backpack, handing it to me. "That's yours." she said, then picked another one off the floor and slung it on her back. "C'mon. School awaits us!" 


End file.
